拘 (jū): to capture, to restrain, to constrain
拘 (jū) is a Chinese character meaning “to capture.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 扌 (semantic) and 句 (phonetic). It ranks #2062 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).
Etymologically derived, 拘 hand. Its radical form 扌 (hand) appears in many related characters such as 手 (shǒu, hand), 打 (dǎ, hit, make), 找 (zhǎo, to look for).
Definitions
- to capture
- to restrain
- to constrain
Etymology & Origin
Stroke Order
Practice writing 拘 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.
Words & Compounds
Common Compounds
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 拘留verb | jū liú | to detain (as a prisoner) |
| 拘捕verb | jū bǔ | to arrest |
| 拘留所noun | jū liú suǒ | detention center |
| 拘束verb | jū shù | to restrict |
| 拘禁verb | jū jìn | constraint |
| 无拘无束phrase | wú jū wú shù | free and unconstrained (idiom) |
| 拘谨adjective | jū jǐn | reserved |
| 拘泥verb | jū nì | to be a stickler for formalities |
| 不拘一格phrase | bù jū yī gé | not stick to one pattern |
| 拘押verb | jū yā | to arrest |
| 不拘verb | bù jū | not stick to |
| 拘礼verb | jū lǐ | to stand on ceremony |
| 不拘小节phrase | bù jū xiǎo jié | to not bother about trifles (idiom) |
| 行政拘留verb | xíng zhèng jū liú | to incarcerate sb for a violation of administrative law, typically for 10 days or less |
| 不加拘束 | bù jiā jū shù | unrestricted |
拘 appears in 35 compound words: 69 as the first character, 14 as the last, and 17 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.
Strongest Collocations
Characters that most frequently co-occur with 拘 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.
Idioms & Chengyu (3)
Showing 2 of 3 idioms containing 拘.
Example Sentences
拘照镜子，整理一下自己的仪容。
jū zhào jìng zǐ , zhěng lǐ yī xià zì jǐ de yí róng .
Look in the mirror and tidy up your appearance.
...金!最贪署长黄季敏遭重判刑期曝 北检火速拘提发监
. . . jīn ! zuì tān shǔ cháng huáng jì mǐn zāo chóng pàn xíng qī pù běi jiǎn huǒ sù jū tí fā jiān
... Gold! The most corrupt director Huang Jimin was sentenced to a heavy sentence and exposed to the Beijing Prosecutor's Office
警茘景邨打击街头赌博 拘控3老翁均年逾八旬
jǐng 茘 jǐng 邨 dǎ jī jiē tóu dǔ bó jū kòng 3 lǎo wēng jūn nián yú bā xún
Police crack down on street gambling in Cheng Jing Estate and arrest 3 old men, all over eighty years old
六旬汉携$300万犀牛角切片抵港遭海关拘捕 涉进口濒危物种囚两年
liù xún hàn xié 3 0 0 wàn xī niú jiǎo qiē piàn dǐ gǎng zāo hǎi guān jū bǔ shè jìn kǒu bīn wēi wù zhǒng qiú liǎng nián
A sixty-year-old man arrived in Hong Kong with $3 million rhino horn slices and was arrested by the customs and imprisoned for two years for importing endangered species
围标|廉署5年接73宗楼宇维修举报 共拘138人 政府研刑事化
wéi biāo lián shǔ 5 nián jiē 7 3 zōng lóu yǔ wéi xiū jǔ bào gòng jū 1 3 8 rén zhèng fǔ yán xíng shì huà
The ICAC received 73 reports on building maintenance in 5 years and detained a total of 138 people, and the government investigated criminalization
百万YTR老高传遭拘罚18亿 扛布者:疑被中国政府“远洋捕捞...
bǎi wàn Y T R lǎo gāo chuán zāo jū fá 1 8 yì gāng bù zhě : yí bèi zhōng guó zhèng fǔ yuǎn yáng bǔ lāo . . .
Millions of YTR Lao Gao was detained and fined 1.8 billion Cloth bearer: suspected of being "ocean-going fishing...
警察拘捕了这个窃贼。
Jǐngchá jūbǔ le zhège qièzéi.
The police officers arrested the burglar.
这个男人被警察拘留了。
Zhège nánrén bèi jǐngchá jūliú le.
The man was held in police custody.
Character Family
Frequently Asked Questions
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What characters sound the same as 拘 (jū)?
Is 拘 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
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